Thumbnail: Del Norte County Department of Health and Human Services employees and their clients commemorated Mental Health Awareness Month with a ceremonial walk to the Flynn Center in May. | File photo by Monique Camarena Though her department is pursuing the same grant to build a local outpatient behavioral health clinic, Ranell Brown urged supervisors to support a Shasta County project that she says will provide services Del Norte County can’t. Brown, director of the Del Norte County Department of Health and Human Services, said her department’s application for $20 million in Behavioral Health Continuum Infrastructure Program (BHCIP) seeks to expand the services Del Norte offers. The “True North” Behavioral Health Campus, a collaboration between Signature Health Care, Arch Collaborative and the Shasta Health Assessment and Redesign Collaborative is a more regional project, she said. “The project includes triage and crisis stabilization and inpatient psychiatric care, residential treatment for children and youth and partial hospitalization and social rehabilitation,” Brown said of the proposed “True North” facility. “It’s a much broader project than what we can do in Del Norte County.” Brown noted that the BHCIP grant resolution and support letter for both projects shared space on Tuesday’s agenda with contracts for outpatient behavioral health services in other counties. “We’re sending people out of county because we don’t have services here,” she said. The Del Norte County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously approved a resolution authorizing the county’s Behavioral Health Branch to pursue the BHCIP grant. County supervisors also agreed to send letters supporting Del Norte’s grant application as well as the “True North” Behavioral Health Campus proposal. According to the county’s letter supporting DHHS’s outpatient clinic, the facility will offer extra space for individual and group therapy services as well as space for intensive outpatient substance use services. The department also aims to develop a six-person crisis respite center that can also be used as a sobering space. The “True North” facility is expected to consist of two buildings totaling about 100,000 square feet, North State ABC affiliate KRCR7 reported. The developers stated they have received more than 30 support letters from nine counties in the region for the project. The BHCIP grant is part of the Behavioral Health Services Act and the Behavioral Health Infrastructure Bond Act, which California voters approved as Proposition 1 in March 2024. The BHIBA is a $6.38 billion general obligation bond to develop behavioral health treatment facilities and supportive housing for those experiencing mental health and substance abuse disorders. Both Del Norte County and the collaborative developing the “True North” project are pursuing BHCIP Round 2: Unmet Needs grant dollars. About $800 million is available statewide. On Tuesday, District 4 Supervisor Joey Borges asked Brown if supporting both projects would be counterproductive to Del Norte since they’re seeking the same grant. District 3 Supervisor Chris Howard said he had the same question, but pointed out that Del Norte has been part of a regional approach to behavioral health concerns “quite extensively.” “With the amount of dollars available through this program it’s going to be extremely competitive,” he said. “And if we lose out, we’re going to still want some kind of campus in the north part of the state to help support what we’re trying to do here.” District 2 Supervisor Valerie Starkey, who is the county’s representative on the Local Behavioral Health Board, said she thinks there will be enough funding to support both Del Norte’s project and the Shasta facility. “That would only just enhance our region and the services that will be provided overall,” she said. “While we are competing against each other in a lot of ways, I think both of these have a very high probability of being funded.” Shiann Hogan, deputy director for the Behavioral Health Branch, told supervisors that she was invited to attend an event in Shasta County to discuss the BHCIP funding and what the region’s behavioral health needs were. “There were representatives from many counties including county CAOs, boards of supervisors, and we brainstormed about what the needs really looked like,” she said. “A lot of that had to do with this type of treatment that they’re going to offer and where to put that in the northern region so we can all access it.” Though she asked if the county considered using an existing building instead of constructing a new facility for the outpatient clinic, Norma Williams, president of the Del Norte County Employees Association SEIU 1021, asked if DHHS considered partnering with the Department of Probation. Referring to an agreement between Del Norte and El Dorado County to house juvenile offenders that the Board had voted on earlier, Williams said she hoped the clinic could offer some youth services so they don’t have to go out of county. Williams also reminded supervisors that DHHS will likely have to move staff from current buildings into the new facility. She said that under the county’s contract with SEIU 1021, department heads must give impacted employees at least two weeks notice that they will be changing locations. “I think this is a good way to save money so we’re not having to send our people out of county for residential treatment,” Williams said.